Race #3 2005- Scottsdale Triathlon

No shit there I was...treading water with 75 yards to go in the swim. I realized I wasn't moving forward with my devastating breast stroke and realized I had switched from a outsweep motion to an insweep motion of my arms. I was hurting, my googles were fogged up and I automatically went into default mode in the water.

Everything up to the swim was great. The transition area was nice, got a good spot early, it was warm, actually met a guy who used to work for me and got to talk to someone about something other than small talk.

As I plunged into the water these were my first thoughts, "My this is a deep pool and those lines are far away...I am not used to swimming with lines that are angled, oh thats were the pool drops off...I can't crawl stroke anymore." Which brought me to the point were I was breast stroking, hydrating very well thank you, and just about feeling like the worst swimmer at the party. So I did what every bad swimmer does, I thought about drowning. Let me back up a moment, remember I posted that I am not a strong swimmer but had swam, swum, the distance once. Well I guess I was so excited to finally be getting this going that I...well you get the point. I flashed back to the first time I had sex, same kind of thing.

So back to the moment of decision, to drown. I have three choices; a) drown, b) swim to the side of the pool and get out, thereby humiliating myself in front of dozens of people still in line to get in the pool, c) have the heart to pool myself the rest of the way and rise from the pool a partially drowned individual. Well option 'c' technically satisifed 'a' and 'b' so I chose that and got out in 10:30.

T1 took 2 minutes, and even though I sucked down a Hammer Gel, I just couldn't wash it down with water and spit it out. I guess I had already had to much to drink.

I felt better on the bike, it was the first time riding the BP Stealth. I will post a picture Monday of it. It was a 12 mile course and while I felt like I kept a good cadence I got past by pretty much everyone. I finally got in some 'Left!" towards the end. My goal was to finish the bike in 45 minutes and did exactly that. I was not using bike shoes, I transfered my mountain bike pedals over with mini toe clips so I could use my running shoes. I started to get a bit of soreness in my left ankle which I hoped would not be a problem on the run.

T2 was 45 seconds.

Ahh finally the run. Now I felt like I gave it a good go on the bike and did not have the typical cramping issues in the legs, though my back took a 1/3 mile to loosen up. On the run I finally had an event I could do. I don't say that because I am a great runner, but well lets face it's the one triathlon event I have some base doing. I hammered out high 7's and finally got some vindication passing people. Too little, too late to expect a decent ranking but thats not what this was about really.

After years of swimming, biking, running course with my wife; set back after set back on planned races I wanted to do, I just wanted to cross that damn finish line. And don't think I didn't notice that my name was not called crossing the line, like everyone else around me, that happens with a name as unique as mine, but I didn't care.

Its been a couple of hours since I finished and my one physical thought is that this triathlon was not as punishing on my body as my 8k or 1/2 marathon was. Except for the, you know, almost drowning part. Mistress Carol assures me a delayed onset of lactic acid by tomorrow. Hey I was pretty happy to wear a fleece top and sweat pants until the last minute, unlike road races where you stand around in shorts and thin tops for a couple hours before start time.

A milestone has been officially past. I am now an official triathlete, not a gym tri or training tri. It feels pretty good. Right now that feels as good as hearing my two year old say, "Daddy."